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Arctic research centre scrambles to survive

A file photo of The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) is located on Ellesmere Island at Eureka, Nunavut.

Photograph by: James R. Drummond, Dalhousie University

James Drummond would much prefer to be heading to the Arctic for the polar sunrise.

Instead, the acclaimed atmospheric scientist at Dalhousie University is fighting to ensure the sun does not set on the world's most northerly research lab.

The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Nunavut gives Canadian researchers a unique window on the polar atmosphere.

But the facility known as PEARL, which at 1,500 kilometres above the Arctic Circle is about as far north as you can get and still be on dry land, faces a precarious future despite the stated commitment to Arctic science by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.

Two key sources of federal money that keep the lab and its science going are drying up, says Drummond, who leads the work at PEARL. He also holds a Canada research chair in atmospheric physics at Dalhousie.

Just over $200,000 a year in operating funds from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ends on March 31, he says. And PEARL is on its final instalment of a $5.5 million, five-year grant from the Canadian Foundation for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (CFCAS), a major source of funding for academics. The foundation has not had its funding renewed by the federal government, and PEARL money runs out in March next year. "We are coming rapidly to the end of CFCAS funding," says Drummond.

He is now so tied up trying to find new money to keep the station and its science going that he has to forego this year's trip to study the polar sunrise, when the sun reappears after months of darkness setting off intriguing chemical changes in the atmosphere. "The team starts leaving Saturday, but I will not be with them," he said in an interview from Ottawa where he's been attending meetings.

The researchers were disappointed there was no new money for climate and atmospheric science in the January budget. The government did announce $85 million to maintain and upgrade existing Arctic research stations. Drummond hopes to get a slice of that money to repair the wear-and-tear inflicted on PEARL and its equipment by —50 Celsius temperatures and fierce northern winds.

But, he says the new money cannot be used to pay for operating costs or science. "We could end up in a situation where we have a renovated infrastructure but no funding to actually operate that infrastructure," says Drummond, who is hunting for funds to also pay for power, communications and experiments at the lab. "Most of us know that if you purchase a house, then you require funds to pay the electric bill and to run the property."

The Harper government also restated it's committed in the budget to building a "world-class, High Arctic research station." The station, expected to take about a decade to construct, is to serve as a "hub" for Arctic science activity.

But observers say there is a danger that the know-how and expertise needed to optimize use of the new station will be lost if existing Arctic research programs such as PEARL are neglected or phased out.

An expert panel, brought together by the Council of Canadian Academies, a federally funded science advisory body, last fall listed more than a dozen reasons Canada should do more in the Arctic — ecosystems being affected by climate change, indigenous people with the skills and know-how to help assess the transformation underway, melting permafrost that contains huge stores of carbon that might speed global warming. The panel also urged the government to maintain and build on the Arctic projects now underway.

The work at PEARL focuses on the Arctic atmosphere, which significantly affects the climate across Canada and the rest of the planet. It is also an ideal spot to study Earth's protective ozone layer and climatic change.

The station first opened in 1993 as a federal facility, but Ottawa was ready to bulldoze it in 2004 saying it could no longer afford to keep it going.

Drummond led a group of university and government scientists who saved the lab, and cobbled together funding from various sources to buy new instruments and cover the $2.25-million-a-year cost of running the lab and its research. But the money is now running dry.

If new funding cannot soon be found to continue the work, Drummond fears many of the young scientists will likely head for the U.S. where President Barack Obama has committed more than $500 million to climate and atmospheric research. Either that, he says, or the graduate students, post-docs and technical staff now paid with the dwindling federal funds could end up unemployed.